Occidental Life Ins. Co. v. Eiler
Decision Date | 07 March 1942 |
Docket Number | No. 11990.,11990. |
Parties | OCCIDENTAL LIFE INS. CO. v. EILER. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
James C. Jones, Jr., of St. Louis, Mo. (James C. Jones, W. A. Welker, and Jones, Hocker, Gladney & Grand, all of St. Louis, Mo., on the brief), for appellant.
Frank L. Ramacciotti, of St. Louis, Mo. (Raymond E. LaDriere, of St. Louis, Mo., on the brief), for appellee.
Before GARDNER, SANBORN, and WOODROUGH, Circuit Judges.
Rehearing Denied March 7, 1942. See 126 F.2d 429.
This suit was brought by Sophie Eiler, the beneficiary named in a double indemnity insurance policy issued to her husband in his lifetime which was in full force and effect at the time of his death. The defendant insurance company had reinsured and assumed the contract of the original insurer and stood in its shoes as to liability. It had paid the amount of the life insurance benefit in the sum of $5,000, but had paid only $1,500 of the $5,000 accident insurance, and the suit was to recover the remaining $3,500 under the accident insurance provisions of the policy and for attorney's fee and damages for vexatious refusal to pay. The plaintiff recovered judgment upon the trial before the court without a jury for the amount sued for, with interest and costs, and for $350 damages and $1,000 attorney's fee, and the insurance company appeals.
Statement.
The policy sued on provided that if the plaintiff's husband died as the result of injury incurred through violent, external and accidental means, the insurer would pay her $5,000 in addition to the $5,000 agreed to be paid upon his death, and the proof was that he committed suicide while insane by shooting himself with a rifle. The plaintiff relied upon the controlling Missouri law that the suicide by shooting while insane was an accidental death incurred by violent and external means within the meaning of the policy. The defendant insurance company alleged in its answer that after the death of the insured a dispute arose between itself and the plaintiff as to whether or not the death of the insured was the result of an accidental bodily injury within the meaning of the policy and as to whether the plaintiff was entitled to the additional $5,000 under the accidental death benefit of the policy, and that it had offered and plaintiff had agreed to accept $1,500 in full settlement and discharge of all claim under the double indemnity or accidental benefit of the policy, and that in consideration of the payment to her of $1,500 she had executed a written release in full of all her claims. The release signed by her was set up in the answer and it was alleged that the payment constituted accord and satisfaction and that the release was a bar to the action.
In her reply to the answer the plaintiff denied that any dispute had ever arisen or existed between herself and the insurance company as to whether the death of her husband was the result of accidental bodily injury within the meaning of the policy, or as to whether the plaintiff was entitled to the additional $5,000 under the double indemnity provisions, or that she had agreed to accept $1,500 in full settlement and discharge of her claims, or that she had executed and delivered the alleged release, or that the payment of the $1,500 constituted accord and satisfaction. Although she admitted signing the paper and receiving the money, she denied that the money was accepted or the instrument signed in settlement of her claim. She alleged that, "after the death of her husband, the insured, she called at the office of the Guaranty Life Insurance Company, and defendant, Occidental Life Insurance Company, its successor, and there talked to their representative and agent in charge of said office, and advised him of the death of insured, and made proof thereof; that, at said time, and repeatedly thereafter, she told said representative and agent of said Guaranty Life Insurance Company, and defendant, Occidental Life Insurance Company, its successor, that insured was insane at the time of his death, and had been insane for several years prior thereto; that at said time plaintiff furnished defendant and said agent and representative with a coroner's certificate, which stated on its face, that the insured was insane at the time of his death, and had been for two years or more prior thereto; that at said time plaintiff also stated to defendant and said representative and agent that the insured had been confined to, and under treatment in, hospitals for insanity, and that doctors had recommended and advised plaintiff that the insured be permanently confined to a hospital for the insane because of his said condition of insanity, which was incurable, and she demanded payment in full of said sum of $5,000 due her under the accidental death or double indemnity benefit of said policy, but that defendant and said representative and agent stated to her that the company did not pay double indemnity under such circumstances.
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Foster v. Aetna Life Ins. Co. of Hartford, Conn.
... ... App, 508, 101 S.W.2d 729. (18) This ... rule is applicable to beneficiaries of life and accident ... insurance policies. Occidental Ins. Co. v. Eiler, ... 125 F.2d 229; Berry v. Detroit Casualty Co., 300 ... S.W. 1026; Head v. N.Y. Life Ins. Co., 241 Mo. 403, ... 147 S.W ... ...
-
Famous Music Corporation v. Seeco Records, Inc.
...Kerr & Company v. Fooks, D.C.W.D.Arkansas, 1956, 145 F.Supp. 503, appeal dismissed, 8 Cir., 1957, 245 F.2d 245; Occidental Life Ins. Co. v. Eiler, 8 Cir., 1942, 125 F.2d 229, cert. denied, 1942, 316 U.S. 688, 62 S.Ct. 1278, 86 L.Ed. This principle has been also enunciated by the New York co......
-
Massachusetts Bonding & Insurance Co. v. Feutz
...of this court to enter award of damages accordingly. May Department Stores Co. v. Reynolds, 8 Cir., 140 F.2d 799; Occidental Life Ins. Co. v. Eiler, 8 Cir., 125 F.2d 229. The judgment appealed from is ...
-
Wiener v. Mutual Life Ins. Co.
...policy were paid, yet it was insisted by defendant at the trial that there was a default in payment of premium. In Occidental Life Insurance Co. v. Eiler, 8 Cir., 125 F.2d 229, certiorari denied 316 U.S. 688, 62 S.Ct. 1278, 86 L.Ed. 1760, it was the act of the insurance company in contestin......